1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle trouble diagnosis method, a vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus and a computer-readable record medium recording a trouble diagnosis program for diagnosing the trouble state of a vehicle while communicating with an electronic control unit of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some trouble might occur in vehicles such as automobiles, etc. To repair a vehicle having a trouble, it becomes necessary to determine the causes of the trouble. Thus, in garages, etc., maintenance handbooks describing a trouble diagnosis method corresponding to each of vehicle models, etc., are ready for facilitating determination of the trouble cause. However, because the maintenance handbooks are massive, it takes large amount of work and time in searching for the necessary description and it might result in taking time in trouble diagnosis.
Then, hitherto the following trouble diagnosis method has been executed: Troubleshooting information for each trouble symptom described in the maintenance handbooks is input as data into a personal computer. Then, trouble diagnosis is proceeded with according to instructions in an interactive mode with the personal computer.
However, to manually convert the troubleshooting information described in the maintenance handbooks into data in the personal computer, it takes time in data preparation work. Therefore, only troubleshooting flowcharts are converted into data conventionally. As a result, the detailed contents of inspection work must be checked by checking the corresponding pages of the maintenance handbook as required, and it is feared that it takes time in trouble diagnosis. It is also feared that erroneous data might be entered because the data is manually input into the computer.
Further, if it is necessary to diagnose a control machine of an engine, etc., according to the trouble symptom, a dedicated measuring instrument (scan tool) is connected to the electronic control unit of the vehicle for measuring data required for the trouble diagnosis; it is feared that a trouble diagnostician having a little knowledge on (poor experience in) the operation method of the measuring instrument and the measured data evaluation method may require much time in trouble diagnosis or conduct erroneous diagnosis.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a vehicle trouble diagnosis method, a vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus, and a computer-readable record medium recording a trouble diagnosis program for making it possible to execute rapid and reliable trouble diagnosis.
To the end, in a vehicle trouble diagnosis method of the invention, to connect a computer to an electronic control unit of a vehicle and diagnose trouble state of the vehicle, first the computer is connected to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis and the trouble diagnosis data is read from the server (data read step), trouble diagnosis is proceeded with in an interactive mode with the computer using the read trouble diagnosis data (trouble diagnosis step), and vehicle data is automatically acquired from the electronic control unit using the trouble diagnosis data (automatic vehicle data acquisition step).
Preferably, new trouble diagnosis data is added from the server to the computer in response to the acquisition result of the vehicle data at the automatic vehicle data acquisition step (additional data read step), and trouble diagnosis is further proceeded with in the interactive mode with the computer using the new read trouble diagnosis data (additional diagnosis step).
More preferably, the trouble diagnosis data is stored in the server as a data structure in an open format as a part of vehicle maintenance description data, and at the trouble diagnosis step, the trouble diagnosis data is extracted from the vehicle maintenance description data and is converted into a data structure that can be displayed in an interactive mode and the trouble diagnosis data resulting from the converting is used to proceed with the trouble diagnosis in the interactive mode with the computer.
In a vehicle trouble diagnosis apparatus of the invention, trouble diagnosis data is read via a server connection interface from a server storing the trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis by data a read section and an instruction of a trouble diagnosis routine provided by processing the read trouble diagnosis data is given in an interactive mode by a diagnostic routine instruction section through a display section and an input section. An automatic vehicle data acquisition section automatically acquires vehicle data from an electronic control unit of the vehicle via a vehicle connection interface in response to the instruction of the diagnostic routine instruction section and displays the acquired vehicle data on the display section.
Preferably, new trouble diagnosis data is additionally read from the server in response to input to the input section and an instruction of a trouble diagnosis routine provided by processing the new read trouble diagnosis data is additionally given in the interactive mode by the diagnostic routine instruction section.
More preferably, the trouble diagnosis data is formed as a part of vehicle maintenance description data having a data structure in an open format, an extraction section extracts the trouble diagnosis data from the vehicle maintenance description data, a conversion processing section converts the extracted trouble diagnosis data into a data structure that can be displayed in the interactive mode, and the diagnostic routine instruction section displays the trouble diagnosis data resulting from the converting, thereby giving a trouble diagnosis routine instruction in the interactive mode.
Further, with a computer-readable record medium recording a trouble diagnosis program of the invention, the recorded trouble diagnosis program is executed in a computer, thereby causing the computer to provide a connection function to a server storing trouble diagnosis data required for trouble diagnosis, a connection function to an electronic control unit of a vehicle, a read function of the trouble diagnosis data from the server,
a function of giving an instruction of a trouble diagnosis routine provided by processing the read trouble diagnosis data in an interactive mode through an display section and an input section, and a function of automatically acquiring vehicle data from the electronic control unit in response to the instruction and displaying the acquired vehicle data on the display section.
Preferably, the recorded trouble diagnosis program is executed in a computer, thereby causing the computer to provide a function of additionally reading new trouble diagnosis data from the server in response to input to the input section and a function of additionally giving an instruction of a trouble diagnosis routine provided by processing the new read trouble diagnosis data in the interactive mode.
More preferably, the recorded trouble diagnosis program is executed in a computer, thereby causing the computer to provide a function of extracting the trouble diagnosis data from vehicle maintenance description data having a data structure in an open format, a function of converting the extracted trouble diagnosis data into a data structure that can be displayed in the interactive mode, and a function of displaying the trouble diagnosis data resulting from the converting, thereby giving a trouble diagnosis routine instruction in the interactive mode.
The data structure in the open format is a data structure independent of specific systems or programs: for example, SGML data corresponds thereto. For example, HTML data corresponds to the data structure that can be displayed in the interactive mode.